Photo gallery of Farrar motor pacing ahead of Sunday's race
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Farrar checks in to make sure the car is taking the correct route(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
The Garmin-Cervelo bikes before the ride(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervelo) will lead the team at Kuurne(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervelo)(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervelo)(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Farrar (Garmin-Cervelo) knows the local roads(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Farrar will be one of the most feared riders in the Classics(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Holding a steady 50kph (Image credit: Daniel Simms)
(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Farrar gets up close and personal with the team car(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Farrar rode alone this morning while the other riders went for a longer training ride(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Farrar, Weltz and Klier talk ahead of the weekend's racing(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
The team's mechanic get to work on Farrar's bike(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Farrar looks over the mechanic takes him through any changes to his race bike(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Farrar and Weltz talk training routes(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Farrar arrives ahead of schedule(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
The team bus comes with a slushie machine(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervelo) enjoyed a 45 minute ride behind the team car(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Tyler Farrar and Thor Hushovd will split team leadership duties at Garmin-Cervelo at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne this weekend, with the American targeting the latter and the Norwegian world champion focusing on Omloop Nieuwsblad.
Farrar, who is fresh off the back of stage win at the Tour of Algarve, has spent the last few days recovering but joined the team at their base in Melle, Belgium for a short stink of motor pacing ahead of Sunday’s race.
“It's just about spinning the legs a bit. For these races it’s important that you want to be fresh but you don’t want to be totally shut down after resting so getting out and doing 45 minutes behind the car was good,” he told Cyclingnews.
“I feel pretty good. I’ve had a few victories. Algarve went pretty well and I won the points jersey so my fitness is where I want it to be right now. I still wouldn’t say that I’m 100 per cent but I wasn’t planning on be 100 per cent right now. So far everything is on track.”
On paper Garmin-Cervelo is one of the strongest Classics teams in the peloton, having signed the lion's share of Cervelo TestTeam’s star riders. Juggling the rider's ambitions and objectives could be one of the biggest challenges facing the team this spring but Farrar only sees the new recruits as a positive sign of intent.
“We’ve a lot of depth in our team this year so the idea was to try and go with a fresh leader into each race so Thor will go to Omloop and I’ll head into Kuurne.”
“I’ve done Kuurne a few times now and been top ten there before but this will be the first time I’ve come into it completely fresh. It’s a bit of an experiment.”
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Farrar is especially looking forward to racing with Andres Klier. The German is regarded as one of the sport’s most experienced Classics riders by those in and out of the peloton and despite missing a section of last year’s spring races through injury, Farrar believes he will be integral to any success.
“Andreas is one of the most experienced classics riders in the world so having him is a big asset. The thing our team has possibly missed in the last years is that we’ve had a really strong team but a young one, so having someone like him, who has done these races so many times and knows every road like the back of his hand is a bit asset.”
The Garmin-Cervelo provisional line-up for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad also includes David Millar, Roger Hammond, Dan Lloyd, Johan Van Summeren and Murilo Fischer.
Farrar replaces Hushovd for Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and other changes include Brett Lancaster, Travis Meyer, Gabriel Rasch and Navardauskas Ramunas.
Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
